


Friday

by Aryagraceling



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo Fills [10]
Category: Naruto
Genre: (more like feelings admission), Feelings Realization, M/M, Nervousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-18 01:29:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20630855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aryagraceling/pseuds/Aryagraceling
Summary: “What are we?”Genma’s silence speaks volumes.“Friends? Fuck buddies?”To his surprise, Genma drops his hand, picks out his senbon, and asks for a cigarette as well. “Are we fighting?”“I don’t know,” Shikamaru says, head thumping back against the siding. “No.”“You don’t know, no?”“I want to know, Gen,” he sighs. “I’m tired of this in-between.”





	Friday

**Author's Note:**

> BTHB prompt "arm in a sling"
> 
> Genma should know better than to get distracted by feelings on a mission, tsk tsk

Shikamaru didn’t mean for things to come this far. Late nights, senbon scattered on his table, sideways glances in the hokage offices...none of it was meant to go past ‘sex on occasion,' and  _ occasion  _ has turned into a regular occurrence along with their Friday night drinking and lazy Saturday mornings nursing their heads. It helps keep him grounded and he looks forward to their appointments, but it  _ scares  _ him. 

He sighs and sinks back into the old chair on the porch, curling his hand to his lips for a drag on his cigarette. It’s one of his worse habits, he supposes, but it soothes his nerves as he waits for the clouds to crack and pour down on the land around him. There’s an electricity in the air not unlike the feeling of chakra flowing over his skin and he lets it surround him, takes in what he can to bolster himself. 

The sky opens as he spots the tokujo ambling up the path. He watches as shock, then irritation, then acceptance flit across his partner’s face, shoulders slumping at the very second he decides not to dash for cover. It’s probably better he doesn’t jostle the bandaged arm he’s got clasped to his chest, anyway. Shikamaru crushes the butt out on the small ashtray and picks up the blanket from the next chair to hold it out. “Come on,” he calls. “Warmer under here.”

Genma nearly collapses into the chair. “Little warmer anywhere you are, hmm?” he says as Shikamaru gets up tucks the fabric around his shoulders. His very being exudes exhaustion and when Shikamaru’s hand lingers on the sling, he shrugs the touch off with a grunt. “October rains have nothing on the light of your presence.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Shikamaru drawls. He inclines his head toward the injured limb. “What happened?”

“I was attacked by giant, man eating beasts.”

He’s going for that tone that means a joke, and the fact he’s avoiding the question makes Shikamaru’s spine crawl with worry. “Don’t lie to me.”

“I would never.”

“Never? Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Shikamaru says. He waves his hand, trying to muster a smirk when Genma opens his mouth to protest. “Get inside. I’ve got something planned for tonight.”

Genma arches a brow. “Something?”

“Drinking. It’s Friday, after all.” Shikamaru rises, helps Genma to his feet and through the door before extending an arm to slip around his waist as his lips skim idly over the older man’s throat. In this second he’s content to simply  _ feel _ , try to ground himself with the way Genma’s pulse beats steadily under his mouth. “Maybe a few other things.”

“I hope a few other things include you sitting naked in my lap,” Genma murmurs. “Preferably I’m also naked.”

Shikamaru huffs into his shoulder. “Is it always about that with you?” When he looks up, there’s something unrecognizable in the amber eyes and Genma’s forehead knits in confusion.

“No?”

“I’m--” _Kidding, _Shikamaru wants to say. _Sorry _catches in his throat because if Genma isn’t supposed to tell lies, then he won’t either. “I need another cigarette,” he says instead. He’ll probably come to regret it later, this many in a row, but he needs to stop himself before he falls further, faster. 

Genma leans against the inside of the doorframe when Shikamaru steps back out, groaning softly in pain when his arm bumps against the wood. “You’re in a mood today,” he says. “It’s Friday, just be happy Kakashi didn’t keep you until midnight like he did last week.”

“Right.” 

When Shikamaru’s hand drops, Genma takes the opportunity to tangle their fingers. “What’s wrong? Work? Something else?”

“What are we?”

Genma’s silence speaks volumes.

“Friends? Fuck buddies?”

To his surprise, Genma drops his hand, picks out his senbon, and asks for a cigarette as well. “Are we fighting?”

“I don’t know,” Shikamaru says, head thumping back against the siding. “No.”

“You don’t know, no?”

“I want to know, Gen,” he sighs. “I’m tired of this in-between.”

Genma clicks his tongue, tapping the needle against his chest with his injured hand. “Whatever you want us to be.”

“That’s not what I asked.” Shikamaru stares out at the forest and tries to reign in his snappiness. He can feel Genma angling away, and hates the fact that feelings won over fortitude to hurt someone he cares about. “Gen, I’m sorry.”

“I meant it,” Genma mutters. “It’s fine if you don’t want me like that, but you don’t have to be an asshole.”

Smoke disappears into the clouds as Shikamaru exhales. “I’m not trying to fight,” he says, “but this has gotten to a point that you’re what I think about right before sleep, whenever I have a spare moment, and I don’t want to ruin what we have because I’m falling and you’re not.”

“Oh.” Thunder rumbles, sending a shudder through Shikamaru with Genma’s non-answer. “I...that’s…”

“Unwelcome?”

Instead of the agreement Shikamaru expects, Genma turns back around and presses their shoulders together. “Much better than saying you never want to see me again,” he says, cracking his neck. “Sort of caught me by surprise.”

“Sorry.”

Genma leans down to rest his forehead against Shikamaru’s neck. "You know you could've come to me with that, right?" he asks. "I'm going to run away because you suddenly decided you wanted me that way."

"Please," Shikamaru snorts. "I've always...wanted you. Why else would I have started this?" He laughs with only the slightest bit of humor and slumps against his partner. "I just didn't know if you felt the same way."

"I'm not you," Genma says, teasing softly. "I don't take as long to realize things. I've known how I feel for a while now."

"Have you?"

"You're not the only one who’s distracted by someone else on missions," Genma says. When Shikamaru looks over, his lips are sealed around the butt of the cigarette. "And sometimes if it's during the week and we're both in town, I think about coming out here and asking to hang out somewhere. I miss you when it's not Friday or Saturday, you know. And this." He extends his injured arm the best he can. "They caught me off guard because I was too busy thinking about how badly I wanted to hold your hand."

Shikamaru shivers as a slight breeze rustles the blanket fluttering against his thigh. He feels safe here, warm and  _ loved  _ as he relaxes into Genma. He wonders if he  _ should  _ feel this way, but Genma doesn't seem to mind standing here while he puzzles out how the  _ shoulds _ . He never really seems to mind sitting here with Shikamaru on days like these.

He should've said something sooner.

“I was watching clouds,” Genma says, the corner of his mouth twitching up in a smile. “It really is a soothing thing to do, but not so much when you get the shit beat out of you.”

Shikamaru pushes off the wall and turns to face him before lowering his lips to kiss the fabric concealing god knows what sort of injury. It’s an exploration he doesn’t know he should be embarking on, but the way Genma sighs and rubs his cheek over Shikamaru’s hair has him confident it’s a step in the right direction. The hand gently smoothing circles over his hip does nothing to dissuade the notion either. 

"So..." Genma trails off as he takes his hand away to crush the butt and before squeezing Shikamaru's hand. "Can we go inside and talk about this? I'm freezing out here. Wet and all." He brushes his lips across Shikamaru's temple and tugs him over the threshold. "Tell me how long this has been happening," he says. "A secret for a secret?"

"I think I need a secret from you first," Shikamaru says, exhaling shakily.

"I think you're the best lay I've ever had," Genma says, and when Shikamaru looks up to see if he's joking there's nothing but seriousness in his eyes. "And I think it's because I trust you more than I do anyone else I've slept with."

Shikamaru settles on the couch, Genma on the opposite end still wrapped in the blanket. "Do you, now?"

Genma flushes. "Yeah."

"Seven months now," Shikamaru admits in answer to the previous question. "It started around the time when we began going out as friends. I thought I was fine with just friends, but..."

"We became more," Genma says, gnawing on his lip as he stares at the fabric between them. "I think I figured it out before you."

"Always ahead of the game." Shikamaru extends his legs so they tangle with Genma's and takes a deep breath. "I didn't want to say it because I trust you too," he says, "and I didn’t want to risk that trust. Isn't that stupid?"

"You've never been known for being good at feelings, have you?"

"I didn't know Temari was into me until my mom all but hit me over the head with it." Shikamaru ducks his head, embarrassed, and shakes his hair out to help hide his reddening face. "I just prefer things to be simple, and Temari wasn't."

"Are we simple?" Genma asks.

"I thought we were," Shikamaru says. "Now…” He settles his head on the back of the couch and stares at nothing. “I'm not so sure."

Genma gets up and moves closer until he's laying in Shikamaru's lap, head resting on his thigh. His jaw works as he brings a hand to cradle his shoulder, thinking things over with the look Shikamaru's grown so fond of. "I want to be simple," he says eventually. "I want  _ you." _

"Even if I'm complicated?”

"You're not so bad," Genma says with a far-off look in his eyes, a barely-there smile on his lips. "I just keep your shogi board in order and keep you fed when you work late."

"And then I have to take care of your senbon when I find it stuck in my bedside table, right?" Shikamaru says. Genma nods. "Suppose that isn't so bad either. All the shedding is a drag, though."

Genma cranes his head to look up at him. "Like I don't find hair stuck in all my clothes after you're finished wearing my shirts on Saturday morning?"

"Payback."

"Pay me back by putting a name on this," Genma murmurs. "Deal?"

"My job now?" Shikamaru asks.

"Your job now."

"I haven't slept with anyone else since a few weeks after this started," Shikamaru says. He cards his fingers through the older man's damp hair, bends down to nose into the strands. "Didn't have the time, at first, then I didn't want to." Taking a deep breath, he says, "I want this to be an us. Let me be the man you come to on any day, not just Fridays."

Genma grabs Shikamaru's hand and brings his scarred knuckles to his lips. "I like the sound of 'us,'" he says, breath ghosting over Shikamaru's skin as he kisses each ridge. 

"Just don't go fawning over me in public," Shikamaru says. He releases the breath he was holding in a soft whine when Genma takes the tip of his index finger into his mouth, swirling his tongue around the tip the same way he does for his senbon. "You're being distracting."

"Can't I appreciate my partner?" Genma says with a smirk.

"Promise first." Shikamaru takes his finger away and presses his hand to Genma's chest instead. "Things won't change too much between us."

Genma nods. "I promise."

"No telling me to get out of bed before seven on days off, either," Shikamaru says with mock seriousness.

"Only if you promise not to wake me up and insist on shogi right away in the morning," Genma counters. "Other than that, I suppose most things go. We'll figure it out."

"I think we will," Shikamaru says. He relaxes under Genma's gentle touches, muscles letting go of the tension that nerves always bring. There's no need for tension now, no need to be anxious as Genma's lips track over the skin of his wrist.

"You don't mind this, do you?" Genma asks. "Or did you really want to drink?"

"I've said all I needed a drink for," Shikamaru says. It's not entirely true, but his  _ I love you  _ will come in time. Perhaps tonight, perhaps a year from now.  _ Perhaps never,  _ he thinks, but banishes the thought as soon as it crosses his mind. No one knows what their final day will be, and there's no need to dwell on it, especially when they’re here with each other, no more secrets weighing on their hearts.

He reaches up to wind a hand into Shikamaru's hair, pulling him down into a kiss that shakes Shikamaru down to his core. "Then let's go to bed," he whispers. "You're so cute when you get your thinking face. Irresistible."

"I don't have a thinking face," Shikamaru says.

"You get your thinking face whenever you're struggling with something, which is  _ every  _ time you’re in Kakashi’s office," Genma says. He trails a finger over Shikamaru's forehead and down to the corner of his lips, then repeats the motion on the other side as his eyes flick over Shikamaru's face. "It’s been directed at me recently, and I didn't know how to take it. I didn't like the thought that I was confusing you."

"Ah, I'm confusing myself, what else is new?" Shikamaru breathes.

Genma nods before capturing his lips again. "Stop thinking and just feel," he says. Between them, he draws Shikamaru's hand to rest on the sling above his heart. "We can worry about everything else later, all right? Let us be us right now."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments always read and _very_ much appreciated, and I always do my best to get back to them ❤️
> 
> You can also find me lurking and yelling about fictional characters on:  
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